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Qantas must pay A$120 million penalty for selling cancelled flights, court rules
October 9th 2024
The Federal Court of Australia has upheld a A$100 million (US$81 million) fine imposed on Qantas Airways as part of the carrier’s settlement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Read More » The airline has been fined for misleading consumers by offering and selling tickets for thousands of flights it had decided to cancel. The settlement with the ACCC also requires Qantas to pay compensation of A$20 million to customers. Figures from the ACCC show 86,597 customers paid to travel on flights between May 2021 and August 2023 that Qantas had already cancelled. Additionally, more than 880,000 Qantas customers continued to see their flights appear in the “Manage Booking” section of the airline’s website or app for two or more days after Qantas had decided to cancel the flights. “People had made plans and may have spent money on other related purchases relying on the fact the flight would depart as advertised,” ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said. “The delay in notifying them of cancellations may have made it more stressful and costly to make alternative arrangements.” Qantas said it had changed its operating and scheduling systems to ensure the practice no longer occurred.
